Chapter Five
Ordinarily, waking at quarter to six would have left Juliette grumpy as hell, but she was too horny to be grumpy. Her ex’s rejection had done a job on her libido that not even a string of revenge one-night stands had really helped. But since Ryder had come along, it was growling on all cylinders.
She’d drifted off to sleep thinking about all the things she was going to do to his body and—surprise, surprise—she was so damn hot when she opened the door to him she practically climbed him like a tree.
Ignoring an excited Tiny, the duffel bag that dangled from one of Ryder’s hands, and the big tub of dog food in the other, she locked her legs around his waist and smooshed her mouth to his. He groaned against her lips, dropped both things from his hands, and grabbed her ass as he kicked the door shut.
His mouth was hot and hard, and he tasted all minty fresh, and she wanted to drag him to her bed and keep him there all day. But Tiny had other ideas, barking twice at them.
Juliet broke the kiss with a, “Shhh,” and wriggled to be let down. “Karen only got in at two and she’s even less of a morning person than I am. Come on.” She headed across the living room with Tiny on her heels and let him out through the French doors into a courtyard. “Go pee on a few things out there.”
Tiny went happily, padding across the grassy section to the shrubbed border. She shut the doors and turned back to Ryder, who’d obviously been checking out her ass.
“Jesus, you look hot.”
She wasn’t naked, but she did have a lot of skin on display in her standard snug-fitting T-shirt that had been washed to within an inch of its life and barely met the low-riding band of her tiny tartan boxers.
She’d never considered the combination hot. But the way he was staring at her, like he wanted to lick her like a lollipop, was causing her to revise her opinion.
She walked in his direction, totally eye fucking him in return. “Looking pretty damn hot yourself.”
He was in loose-fitting basketball shorts that came to just above his knees but clung to the musculature of his thighs and the hardness of his cock, due to a build-up of static.
Thank you, science.
A T-shirt with the Sydney Smoke logo stretched nicely over his shoulders and sat snug against his belly. She dropped her gaze to his erection as she stopped in front of him.
“Very…athletic.”
He snorted. “I’m pretty sure playing with a hard-on the size of Sydney Harbour will not enhance my athletic ability.”
“Oh…I can help you with that.” She smiled as she grabbed his hand, walking backward, tugging him in the direction of her bedroom.
He let her lead him, but his feet dragged a little. “I really can’t stay.”
His protest might have been more believable had his gaze not been glued to her breasts. Juliet just smiled and thanked the universe that her bedroom was the nearest as she pulled him across the threshold.
He looked at her messy bed and his throat bobbed. “I can’t be late for training. Griff can be a real sonofabitch.”
She smiled again as she let go of his hand to ruck up her T-shirt as he had done last night. “I won’t keep you long.”
“Holy fuck.” Ryder’s nostrils flared as his eyes followed the swing of her breasts. Her nipples puckered under their scrutiny, and he shoved a hand through his hair. “I…really don’t have time—”
Juliet shut her door, planted a hand on his chest, and pushed him against it. One step brought her body against his, the rub of his shirt fabric against the taut peaks of her breasts an erotic kind of torture. She pressed her lips to where his pulse throbbed alongside his windpipe.
“Did you jack off last night?”
He swallowed, his throat undulating against her lips. “No.”
“Really?” He wouldn’t be the first guy to lie about a quick wank.
“Cross my heart. Got no sleep at all.”
A surge of triumph shot through her system and her lips curved upwards. “You think” —she slid her hand between their bodies and groped his dick through his shorts—“you’re going to last very long when I get on my knees and blow you?”
Juliet revelled in both the unsteady timbre of his breathing and the feel of him in her hand. The power she had over him in this moment hit her right between the legs. “I think I will last an embarrassingly short amount of time.”
His confirmation was like a shot of Red Bull to her system. “Well, let’s see, shall we?” She dropped to her knees and in one movement she’d eased his shorts and underwear down enough to expose the thick, hard length of his cock.
Her breath hitched at the sight of it. It was perfectly formed, perfectly proportioned, from the flushed plump head to the thick root and the fat vein running up the shaft. She curled her fingers into her palms so she wouldn’t reach for it—not yet.
She glanced up at him, her mouth perilously close to the bead of liquid pearling at the slit. His face was set into an agonised grimace, his abs rigid as he waited for her next move. “Whatever am I going to do with that monster, Ryder Davis?”
He gave a husky laugh. “I think you could probably just tell it to come now and it would.”
Juliet laughed, too, hers also a little rough and unsteady. She liked the idea of being some kind of cock whisperer, but she preferred a more hands-on approach. “Oh I think I can do better than that.”
Her palms slid up his thighs, one finding the base of his cock, gripping it firmly, the other sliding to his balls as she leaned in and opened her mouth over him.
“Oh…Christ.” His head thunked back against the door, his hands flattening against it, too.
Juliet moaned at the first taste of him, swiping the salty liquid from his head before she sunk her lips down his shaft, her tongue swirling as far down as she could go. He tasted clean and smelled like passionfruit, and she savoured it for long moments before she swirled all the way back again, releasing his shaft with a soft, wet noise.
He groaned, his face a mask, his knuckles white against the door. She smiled. He looked like he was having a root canal instead of his dick sucked.
“Ryder.” It took a second for him to respond but the heat in his gaze when he did look down just about melted her underwear right off. “Look at us.”
He’d asked the same of her last night. Made her look in the mirror and watch what he was doing to her and it had been mind-blowing. Now he could watch her. Watch her mouth sliding on and off his cock. Watch as she ate him up.
And she would watch him, watching her.
“Jesus,” he muttered as she closed her mouth over him. She locked her gaze with his, looking up at him through her lashes as she slowly swirled her tongue over his head and took more and more of him into her mouth.
“Yesss.” His hiss spurred her to take him all the way to the back of her throat. His, “God, I love your mouth,” spurred her to get him there as fast as she could.
This wasn’t the time for fancy teasing, to work him up and drag things out and have him begging for completion. The man had to get to work. She didn’t want to get him into trouble with his coach. It wasn’t some hobby of his, it was his career.
She’d told him she wouldn’t keep him, and she was a woman of her word.
She went fast and furious, her pulse tripping as she sucked him hard, rolling and teasing his balls, their gazes locked as deeply and intimately as the act she was performing.
“Fuck…yes…fuuuck.”
His hands never left the door, his hips never thrust, he left the pace up to her, but he groaned and muttered and panted his approval with words and noises that stoked her own arousal to fever pitch.
Kneeling before him, she was excruciatingly aware of her own reactions. Of the tremble of her hands and the rapid skip of her heart, the noise of her breathing and the wetness building between her legs. The urge to touch herself as she serviced him was a living breathing devil inside her but she resisted.
This wasn’t about her. It was about him. And, as he’d predicted, it didn’t take him long to build, for his balls to contract and his ass to tighten.
“Oh…God. Juliet.” His low groan shot straight through her.
His breath sucked in and out, his nostrils flared, his abs contracted, his quads started to tremble.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
“I’m going to come.” His heated gaze burned a warning into hers, his jaw clamped so tight she thought it might shatter. “If you’re not into swallowing, you need to stop now.”
Triumph surged through her veins like a hit of speed, intoxicating in its intensity. She didn’t stop. She appreciated his consideration, but she wanted him to come in her mouth.
She liked swallowing. Wanted to swallow. Wanted to watch him as she did.
So she held his gaze and kept sucking, squeezing his balls now instead of rolling. He thrust, just once, crying out, his eyes bugging as his warm seed spilled into her mouth.
She sucked him through the throes of his orgasm. Sucked until he was spent and listless against the door, gasping for air, until his hands found her head, his fingers tunnelling into her hair, urging her up.
Only then did she relinquish her mouthful. Savouring the salty, musky taste of him as she eased his and her clothes back into place before rising to her feet. She laughed when he looked at her with eyes that weren’t quite focussed.
“Juliet…”
Her heart contracted at that look. Sexual satisfaction, yes, but awe and wonder, too. As far as compliments went, it was a goody.
“I…I…”
She stopped any more nonsensical mutterings with her mouth, kissing him deep and wet for long, drugging moments before reluctantly pulling away. “You’re welcome. Now go.”
He drew in a ragged breath, his hands sliding to her hips. “Just give me a moment. I don’t think I can walk without falling over just yet.”
Juliet laughed as she looked at her watch. “It’s six.” She pulled him off the door and opened it. “Go. You don’t want to be late.”
He pulled her to him for another kiss. “Have I mentioned how much I love your mouth?”
She grinned. “Go.”
He stepped out into the hallway and she followed him to the front door. Tiny appeared to still be happy peeing on things in the courtyard.
“I brought food, and can I leave this bag here for tonight?” He toed the object that had been hastily discarded when she’d crawled up his body earlier. “It’s just a change of clothes and stuff for the morning.”
“Oh?” She quirked an eyebrow and folded her arms. “Planning on staying, are we?”
He snaked out an arm and jerked her to him, kissing her hard and brief. “I’m not planning on getting any sleep. Neither should you.”
Juliet’s pulse went a little crazy at the silken promise hot on the heels of his kiss. “Go.”
He sighed and reached for the doorknob. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going. I’ll text you when I’m on my way to you tonight.”
Her pulse went a little crazier.
“Tell your coach to take it easy on you. I’ve already warmed you up.”
He hooted out a laugh. “I don’t think Griff’s been laid in two decades. I don’t want to rub it in.”
Juliet stood at the door and watched Ryder leave, a stupid grin on her face and a tiny trill in her chest.
Tonight couldn’t come soon enough.
…
Thirteen hours later, Ryder was swinging on a chair in Bodie’s apartment, his Akubra pulled low on his forehead, staring at a hand of cards that would have made him weep any other night. But if it meant tonight would be over quicker, he didn’t care.
He’d played like shit all night, his head—big and little—in Juliet’s bedroom, her mouth on his dick. Not on cards.
“You know what this poker game needs?” Bodie asked.
“Fuck you, Spidey,” Linc said.
Everyone laughed, even Ryder. The answer was chicks. It used to be Linc’s lament every poker game since Tanner had made the no chicks rule in the beginning. But now he was seriously loved up with Em, they took it in turns to say it just to remind him what a pain in the ass he’d been.
Normally, Ryder would be eating up all the banter. He loved poker nights. The usual suspects were here and a night of smack talk with the guys, away from the pressures of the game, was a welcome relief.
But he was too distracted tonight. It didn’t help that Tanner, Dex, and Linc, who were all in relationships now, were disgustingly smug. Even Dex, who was coping with a rabidly nesting pregnant wife, looked like the cat that’d swallowed the canary.
He’d like to have that look about now. He was pretty sure it’d be plastered all over his face tomorrow morning. But he had to get through a few hours of poker yet. He couldn’t leave early. Not when he was usually the last one standing, or after giving the other guys constant crap about leaving early to get home to their women.
Putting the hoes before the bros and all that stupid bullshit he hadn’t understood until Juliet blew him this morning and it had been all he could think about.
Now he was counting down the minutes until it seemed acceptable to leave. Nine o’clock. He could probably make excuses around nine without rousing suspicion. He could be at Juliet’s by nine thirty. He could have her naked by nine thirty-two.
“How was Dollywood karaoke last night?” Bodie asked as everyone contemplated their cards.
An image of Juliet’s face in the mirror last night, eyes huge in the throes of her orgasm, floated out at him. Who needed karaoke? “Didn’t go.”
It took him a few seconds to realise the whole table was staring at him. It was almost as if a record had been playing and someone had abruptly scraped the needle across the vinyl.
“Bullshit,” Bodie said.
Dono, who’d been about to take a swallow of his beer, snorted. “Since when.”
“You get some kind of concussion?” Tanner asked.
Ryder realised his error. A quarter of poker night was usually taken up by his exploits at The Cock and Bull. The guys loved to give him shit about it, and he lapped it up.
“Nah. Something just…came up.” His dick had come up, that was what. Hell, it’d been more up than down in the last twenty-four hours.
“Yeah.” Bodie frowned. “That’s why you usually go to The Cock and Bull. All those women looking for some cowboy action.”
Ryder kept his ace and tossed the crap into the centre of the table. “I’ll have four.” It wasn’t his turn, but he was hoping it might distract them enough to get things back on track.
He wasn’t sure why he didn’t want the guys to know about Juliet. God knew he often embellished his hookups at poker night. But Juliet wasn’t a hookup. He might not have known her for long, but he already knew that. And he didn’t want the guys thinking that about her, either.
“Hang on a moment.” Linc narrowed his eyes at Ryder. “It’s a chick, isn’t it?”
Linc’s gaze was eerily insightful. Fuck’s sake. “Jesus, you’re a pain in the ass,” Ryder bitched. “Just because you’re under the thumb doesn’t mean everyone else wants to keep it in their pants. You’re worse than a reformed alcoholic.”
Three happily whipped faces all exchanged shit-eating grins. “Monogamy’s not so bad,” Linc said.
Two days ago, Ryder would have rejected that. But considering all he could think about was being with Juliet, he was reassessing his opinion.
Mostly Ryder had kept things easy come, easy go with chicks. He’d had relationships in the past. A few here and there that had lasted one or two months. But none of those women had ever had him in such a spin.
Donovan snorted. “Jesus, dude, who are you and what have you done with Lincoln Quinn?”
There was general laughter and Ryder thought he was off the hook until Tanner cocked an eyebrow. “So what’s her name?”
Ryder glared at his skipper. “Are we playing poker or not?”
He shook his head. “Not now we’re not.”
“Fuck’s sake.” Ryder gave an exaggerated sigh. “It’s the bloody dog, okay?”
It wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t gone to karaoke last night because of Tiny.
“You’re screwing the dog?” Bodie clinked his beer bottle to Ryder’s. “Dude, chops to you, that’s one big motherfucker.”
“Just watch the teeth,” Dex said, and five badass professional rugby players laughed like a group of drunken toddlers.
Ryder waited for them to get over themselves. “If you must know, I’m taking the bloody great lug to puppy preschool. It’s every Tuesday evening for the next six weeks.”
Ryder figured that’d be the end of it, but he’d forgotten that they could pretty fucking nosy for a bunch of dudes.
Dex regarded him for a moment. “Puppy preschool doesn’t go all night, does it? Karaoke doesn’t even get good until ten. So I’m assuming you got a better offer from someone in the class?”
He hesitated for a second. “No.” Strictly speaking, Juliet wasn’t in the class.
But it was death to hesitate in front of any of these guys—on or off the field. They’d sensed blood. “Yes.” Tanner nodded. “I like it. Some pretty young thing with one of those yappy little dogs.”
“The kind that always tries to hump your leg,” Linc added.
Ryder thought of Rufus and smiled. Big mistake.
“Bingo!” Linc crowed.
“Fair dinkum. Is this what being in a relationship is like? So boring you gotta live vicariously through guys like me? Okay then.”
He threw his cards down, affecting his most piteous expression.
“Yeah, I hooked up at the dog park. Her name was Ariel.” He pressed his hand to his heart. “She had this long wavy hair down to her ass. We walked on the moonlit beach and made love in the sand while the dogs frolicked in the surf. It was magical right until she slipped into the water and grew a magnificent silvery tail. She begged me to go with her to her underwater kingdom, but they don’t play rugby there, so she swam away. Now”—Ryder looked at each of them as he picked up his cards—“do you want me to draw you a picture as well or can we play fucking poker already?”
“That’s what she said,” Bodie muttered, which caused more hilarity.
Fuck. He was never going to get out of here.
Ryder finally managed to get away at nine thirty. The guys made several cracks about rushing home to Tiny, but considering how many he’d made in the past he copped it on the chin.
He didn’t care. He just wanted to get to Juliet.
He shot off a quick text as he unlocked his car door. Leaving now. See you in thirty.
Her reply was almost instantaneous. She must have been sitting on her phone, waiting for him to text. Any longer and I’m starting without you.
Ryder grinned. Oh yeah. He wanted to see that. But not tonight. Tonight, he and he alone was going to be responsible for her pleasure.
All. Night. Long.
He didn’t care how tired that made him for training in the morning or how many extra laps Griff might decide to punish him with. Juliet was worth it.
Except when she opened the door to him half an hour later, he knew it wasn’t going to happen. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he caught the deep frown on her face.
“Who is it?”
Ryder looked over Juliet’s shoulder to see a woman of about the same age, eyes red and swollen, her nose running, sitting on the couch. Chip packets and a mountain of tissues were scattered all around the floor, some kind of booze and two glasses sat on the coffee table.
That did not look good.
“It’s the guy who owns the dog,” Juliet assured the other woman. “Just give me a sec. I’ll be right back.”
She pushed him outside into the alcove and shut the door behind her, the night enveloping them. “God, sorry Ryder…I can’t—”
Ryder swooped down, his mouth silencing hers. Whatever she was about to say could wait thirty seconds. He’d been fantasising about kissing her all day and he’d just endured three hours of shit from his teammates and he needed to kiss her.
She sighed, then moaned, her arms creeping up his neck as she moved restlessly against him. He crushed her closer, opened his mouth wider, grabbed her ass and pulled her in tight. He was so damn hard for her he thought his cock was going to split its skin.
She tasted good. Like salt and vinegar chips and Bailey’s Irish cream. Who knew that was such a fucking turn on?
“I’ve been wanting to do that all bloody day.” He pressed his forehead to hers as his lungs grabbed much-needed oxygen.
“Me too.” She pulled out of his embrace. “Only Kelly came home fifteen minutes ago and she’s just been dumped and I’ve been here before with her and it’s not pretty. So what kind of a friend would I be, letting let her go through it alone because I want to fuck you so badly I can barely see straight?”
“Christ.” His fingers curled into his palms. “Don’t tell me that when you’re about to kick me to the curb.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “She was there for me when the shoe was on the other foot.”
Ryder wondered at the cryptic comment, realising suddenly that he knew precious little about Juliet. He’d had his hands down her pants, she’d blown him for god’s sake, yet he didn’t know anything much about her.
Something he intended to correct. ASAP. “I’m happy to wait.” Hell, he’d wait for hours if that’s what it took. “I’ll just crawl into your bed and go to sleep, you won’t even know I’m there. Then you can wake me when it’s over.”
Preferably naked.
She shook her head. “Trust me, it’s going to be an epic night of excessive booze and self-flagellation. There will be hangovers. But if she knows you’re waiting in bed for me, she’ll feel guilty about it and she feels shitty enough as it is.”
Ryder sighed. Just his luck to develop a thing for a chick who took her friendships seriously. Another bloody thing to like about her. Looked like he was spending another night home alone in his bed with only a farting dog for company.
“Of course.” He pulled her flush with him again, his body stirring instantly to the feel of hers. “Tomorrow night, yeah?”
“Oh god yes.”
She rose up on tiptoe and kissed him, and he sunk into the touch and the taste and the smell of her. She moaned and rubbed herself against him and Ryder lost his mind for a minute before he dragged himself back from the edge, breathing heavily. “That’s not helping.”
It was satisfying on a very male level to hear she was breathing just as heavily. “Sorry…I seem to lose my head around you, Ryder Davis.”
“The feeling is entirely mutual.” Ryder squeezed her hip one last time before he let her go. “I’ll just grab Tiny.”
“Nah, leave him. Pick him up from the shelter after you finish training tomorrow. He seems happy enough, and you brought enough food for a week.”
“That,” Ryder grinned, “was my dastardly plan.”
She laughed then and her face softened. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
“Of course.” He was a grown man for fuck’s sake, not a kid who threw a tantrum every time he didn’t get his way.
“Only makes me want to do you more.”
Ryder grimaced. “That’s not helping, either.”
They stood staring at each other, the sexual attraction between them red hot. He expected her to turn and leave, but she lingered, her eyes roving over him like she’d rather be doing very wicked things to his body.
“Go.” Ryder’s voice was husky again. “Before I grab you again.”
She went. And took his peace of mind with her.